Chapter 28 - Chubba Screws Up (TCOK)
"Clam!" Tubba cried, elated. "You're here!" "Ssh!" Clam snarled, "You'll alert the guards." A new voice cut in. "He already has." Swearing under his breath, Tubba leapt to his feet, whipping out Karubba's club, ready to fight. While he leapt to his feet, he surveyed the room around him. There were seven other prisoners in the room other than Clam, and the room was barely big enough to fit all thirteen of them. It was dilapidated and the rock was shaving away in some places. Trotting around the corner, where rusted iron bars blocked the prisoners from the outside, were two Iglators. One had a lime green shell and hair like a tree stalk, and the other had a blue shell and tufted blue hair. "Hang on a minute." Tubba spoke, stepping forward and looking them up and down. "You're not Zaz Kingdom natives. You're Bowser's children." The other one, the one who had not spoken before, the one with tufted blue hair, started. He was surprised. "Hov did youz know?" "I know my rival heirs. You're the smaller branch of the Mushroom Kingdom, one of the nine sub-kingdoms, the Koopa Kingdom's, heir." Tubba explained to the Iglator, and then remembered his name in a flash. "You're Ludwig V., aren't you?" "Yes, I am. Vell, I sink zat zis vas enough time for catch-up." Ludwig whipped out one of his wands and pointed the glowing orb at Tubba's face, but Tubba knew he could beat Ludwig in a fight. Ludwig was 16, and the taller one was Ignatius, who was barely six months older than Tubba. "Wait." Tubba stopped him, he had to figure one thing out, "give me this; Since when did the Koopa Kingdom align themselves with the Zaz Kingdom?" "Vee are originally natives of zee Zaz Kingdom. Zat's vhy. Now, enough catch-up." Ludwig once again pointed his wand at Tubba's face, through the bars of the cell. Tubba, however, was one step ahead. Gesturing with his hands for the others to stay back, he hoped that they understood that he was confident. As Ludwig fired the first jet blue Magic Blast at him, Tubba moved fast enough that it crashed into wall, showering rock and stone on both parties. "Ludwig!" Tubba hollered, over the sound of rock crashing. "Face me outside the cell!" Ignoring the squeal of pain from Clarea as a piece of rock fell on her, Tubba pricked his internal ears for Ludwig's response. "I'm not zat idiotic to let you face me vone on vone." He's smart. I'm smarter. Backing up to the wall, he gestured for the others to get up into the shaft and crawl to safety. Clam, only too keen to get away, scrambled through the shaft straight away. Ludwig and Iggy had retreated a bit, so Ludwig's wand was no longer pointing through the bars but farther away, so the Magic Blast's would have to go between the cell bars to get to them. "They're getting away!" Iggy squealed, and Ludwig took aim with his wand. Suppressing a smirk, Tubba acted like he was still prepared for an attack. They were playing right into his pudgy hands. Ludwig took aim, but with the magic of angles, his Magic Blast was intercepted by one of the bars, blowing it apart at the bottom, and leaving a big enough gap for even a man of Tubba's size to squeeze through. Leaping on his opportunity, he lunged through the bars. Satisfaction flooded him as he saw Ludwig attempt to sidestep out of his way, but failing. Tackling the Koopa heir, his superior body weight overwhelming him, Tubba forced him to the ground. Ignatius, ready for his move, instantly began to try and pull him off Ludwig. Tubba, however, wasn't going to give up until he had Ludwig's wand. Tearing it out of Ludwig's grasp, he hared back through the gap in the bars. Pointing the wand at the ceiling, he willed a Magic Blast to come out. It blew the stones off the roof, and Tubba leapt into the shaft as it was closed up by rubble a few seconds later. Utter silence. Crawling up the shaft, he soon emerged in the pelting rain. The plan had been a success. Now he just had to arrive at the bus and they could all tactically retreat back to the base for regrouping. Feeling his way back to the crack, he pushed his way through quickly. But rather than hearing peace and tranquility of rain falling, he began to hear screams and battle yells as he approached the campsite. I swear, if they were found... He burst into the clearing as Tarz, at the head of Tubba's men, cried, "Drive them out! Drive them out!" Iglators, Clubba Kingdom fighters, and SS Mahruav crewmates milled around in the darkness, firing blows around, and hoping that they hit the right side. Tubba was instantly taken off his feet by an unknown entity, but recognizing Grant, he snarled, "Grant, it's me, you absolute numbskull!" Grant let Tubba sit up, and Tubba glared at the silhouette outlined against the predawn sky. "Who drew them here?" "Your idiot of a brother," came Grant's gruff voice. "He wanted to join in on the other patrol, he got sighted, and then drew them back here. "He just keeps screwing up, doesn't he?" Tubba remarked, looking around to resume battle with someone else. But he did not need to. His men had driven the guards out. "Right, all of my men, aboard the bus, and then let's head back to the base!" Tubba shouted, waiting for his orders to be obeyed. They were. But when they got onto the bus, he would wipe that smug smirk off Chubba's proud and unfazed face.